WILD AND CRAZY RACING ON THE TRACK—BURKHART BACK ON TOP

A cavalcade of supermoto racers stormed into Infineon Raceway for two days of intense action. To kick off the weekend, Supermoto USA hosted round two of the AMA Racing XTRM Amateur Supermoto Championship Series on Saturday with over 200 entries tackling the challenging Jim Russell Karting facility. On Sunday, the big guns hit the track for round two of the XTRM AMA Pro Racing Supermoto Championship. Supermoto was part of a huge weekend of racing that also included the AMA Superbike Showdown down the hill on the road course.

2009 also marked the 40th anniversary of racing at the famed Infineon formally called Sears Point Raceway.

Complete, official results at XTRM.com

450/Premier Main

To say the 450 main event was average would be a total understatement. Let’s just say total chaos ensued from the start of the race all the way to the checkered flag.

Heading into round two, Troy Lee Designs Red Bull Honda rider Jeff Ward commanded the point lead after Monster Energy HMC Burkhart Racing KTM rider Mark Burkhart tossed it away while leading at Fontana and finished third. CHM Exhaust Honda Pro Oils rider Sylvain Bidart took second at Fontana.

Infineon was a bigger battle for Ward even before the start of the race. The seasoned veteran and former Supermoto National Champion had a bad get-off at the motocross track the week prior to the race that resulted in a broken foot. But this hardly slowed the ornery Wardy; he taped up his ankle, stuffed it into a boot and was off racing.

At the start of the 450/Premier main, it was Bidart pulling the holeshot aboard a newly built 2009 CRF450R. Bidart led the pack with All Access/Monster-backed Derek Costella, Burkhart and Monster/BC Racing/Graves Motorsports’ Brandon Currie.

By the end of the first lap, Burkhart was on a mission and made a sick pass for the lead by sliding down the inside of Bidart heading toward the first turn on lap two. From there, Burkhart was pretty much unchallenged. Riders were all over the place trying to make their way to the front and Burkhart pulled a few second lead.

Currie, Burkhart’s former teammate, is also one of his biggest rivals in the 450 class. The two-time 250 class champion and 450 rookie was fast but had his off moments as well. Currie had troubles in the dirt and stalled his bike. It took awhile to get going and Currie had to ride from way back in the pack to eventually finish fifth behind CHM’s Jason Conlon. This mishap also held up Costella, which gave third to Jason Conlon at the time.

The craziness kept going from there. CHM’s Micky Dymond moved into third past Conlon when Bidart slid out. This put Dymond in second and Conlon in third. As the race progressed on, Burkhart had no idea what was happening behind him other than the fact he was leading the field and nobody was knocking on his back door.

In the meantime, Jeff Ward was riding solid considering his foot issues and floated around the front of the pack depending on the lap. Bidart was determined and kept the pressure on and started to work his way back through the field. With CHM riders in second, third and fourth, it looked like their day. Dymond’s easy second place fell to the wayside as a lapper moved into his line and the two made contact and Dymond crashed. Dymond would end up finishing seventh.

At the finish would work his way back to second while Ward raced his way past Conlon later in the race. Ward was on a charge in the later laps but a slight oil leak was spraying oil on his rear wheel and squashed any charge to possibly take second.

Up front, Burkhart took his first win of the year and his finish earned him enough points to make it a two-way tie for the championship with Ward. Bidart trails the duo by a single point back in third.

250/Lites

Rookie pro, Joey Pascarella, aboard a TLD Red Bull Honda was possibly a true contender for the title this season after showing some blistering speed at the opening round despite a few crashes. Things got worse before round two when he dislocated his wrist when another rider hit him from behind while riding motocross. The injury will likely sideline the TLD rider until round four in Utah.

With Pascarella out, Infineon belonged to two racers who have logged a lot of track time at the Sonoma facility—Danny Casey and Casey Yarrow. Danny Casey finished third in the opening round and his win at Infineon placed him in the driver’s seat for the possible title.

Danny Casey pretty much dominated the weekend with the fastest qualifying times. Opening round winner Matt Burton seemed off the pace this past weekend. It may have been the fact that his wife just gave birth to their first child. Burton left Infineon five points behind point leader Casey.

The other Casey, Yarrow that is, has a long history of fierce battles with Danny Casey and it looked like it might have been a showdown in the main. After laying down some fast early laps, Danny Casey pulled a few second gap on Yarrow and pretty much kept that gap throughout the entire race. In third, CHM was back on the podium but this time it was with Dustin Hoffman (no, not the actor). Hoffman put together a crash-free race to finish a career best for the CHM Exhaust Honda Pro Oils rider. Not far behind him was the little Wardy (Brandon) who rode a solid race. He was in a podium position before going down in a low-speed turn but he remounted to finish fourth.

Unlimited

KTM’s Kurt Nicoll kept his winning streak alive with two in a row aboard his trusty 505 SX. This was not to say defending champion Steve Drew didn’t try to put up a fight. Drew came off the line ready for a battle. Nicoll yanked the holeshot over Drew and Factory Highland’s Martin Lind. Drew tried to make an early move for the lead in the dirt but caught a rut and nearly put himself on his head over a jump. He saved it but this gave Nicoll plenty of breathing room heading onto the pavement.

A few laps in, Drew was not about to give Nicoll the glory once more and he put his head down. However, his new front tire had not scrubbed in all the way and he tried to push it a little too early and tucked the front wheel in the middle section of the track. He remounted but gave up a slew of spots.

At this point, Nicoll was literally on a Sunday ride way out front. Lind held down second with Justin Ross in third. Josh Chisum was up there for awhile but seemed to have problems in the dirt and stalled his bike and had trouble getting it re-fired not once but it looked like twice. Ross actually popped in and out of a podium position several times before taking his second fourth in the series.

Drew worked his way through the pack after going down early on but by the time he made it into second, there was no time to put any charge on the leader Nicoll. Martin Lind’s third-place finish in the main marked the first Unlimited podium and the first race Highland fielded a bike in the Unlimited class.

Round three will see both the pro and amateur series head to the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on May 30-31.